Fiat Lux
by fulldaysdrive
Summary: An alternate ending for Patricia C. Wrede's novel Magician's Ward. Written primarily for myself, it's all just mushy gratuitous romance. It does have major SPOILERS though, so don't read unless you've finished MW.
1. Fiat Lux

_Spoiler Warning_: There are major spoilers in this ficcy that have to do with how _Magician's Ward_ ends. Readers might want to give this some consideration if they want to read further.

_Author's Note_: Here's a little scene that's played out in my head for years. Literally. I'm a big fan of Patricia C. Wrede. My favorite two books ever have always been _Mairelon the Magician_ and _Magician's Ward_. What can I say, fluff is fun to read. *grin* The only thing that I've ever griped about is the ending of _Magician's Ward_... Nothing was really wrong with it. But IMHO, the way Pat Wrede tied up the plot was lacking. Just a little. I wanted just a tad bit more romance, darnit! (Kim and Mairelon deserve at least that....) Although I'll admit this fic is drivel. It's definitely drivel. I wrote it for myself rather than anyone else...so anyone wanting to lampoon me for having Kim or Mairelon saying things OOC...well, bleh. ;-) (Well actually, a lot of the writing and dialogue I've tried to keep somewhat close to the original...)

_Author's Note 2_: And to those of you who know me, is anyone besides me figuring out that I like somewhat melodramatic bedside scenes? Except this time the character's convalescent rather than dying...

_Disclaimer_: _Mairelon the Magician_, _Magician's Ward_, and the characters of Kim Merrill, Richard Merrill (Mairelon), Renée D'Auber and every other character and plot device belong to Patricia C. Wrede. I'm just borrowing them for some self-gratification. *grin*

_Updated 3-9-03_: More spelling and grammar fixed (hopefully that's the last of that), and a year later, I've added an epilogue. Yay!

_Fiat Lux_   
-by the Voice of the Mist- 

As Duchesse Delagardie pronounced the final words of the incantation, the crystalline structure of magic almost seemed to glow. Its light was so brilliant it was blinding to Kim, and when the Duchesse brought her hands down in the closing gesture it grew even brighter.

Kim tried to shut her eyes, but her body was paralyzed as raw power from every wizard in the link poured straight into her. _Is this what it felt like to Ma Yanger?_ The magic filled her until she thought she would burst, burning through her brain like liquid fire. The room turned dark suddenly, and she felt as if she were somewhere else. In that other place where her body was but her mind was not, she heard voices, many voices babbling in horror, in excitement, and in fear. The only one she could decipher was Mairelon's: "Duchesse! The counterspell, quickly!"

A phrase spoken in Latin—or was it Greek?— flashed through Kim's mind like a fork of lightning across a darkened summer sky. Then the raging storm of uncontrolled power died, and suddenly it was quiet. With a sigh, Kim felt herself collapse. Strong arms caught her before she hit the floor. She fought them weakly until she heard her name murmured in her ear, and realized it was Mairelon. Then she relaxed into blessed unconsciousness.

~*~*~

Kim awoke in her bed with a colossal headache. Her head throbbed, causing her to moan a little as she opened her eyes. Fortunately, the only light in the room came from a dim, guttering candle on the nightstand beside her bed. She sensed something moving beside her, and she turned, only to see a shadow that was obscured in the darkness of the room. She tensed.

"It's me," the shadow said softly, and she quickly recognized the voice to be Mairelon's. She relaxed, infinitely relieved that he seemed to be all right.

_Well, of course he would be all right, dolt, as you pushed him out of the way..._

"How are you feeling?" he asked. He picked up the candle and brought it closer so that she could see his face. His expression conveyed a world of concern, at which she felt oddly flattered.

"I'm...all right," Kim managed, wincing at the way her voice seemed to generate pulsing waves of pain through her head. Slowly she sat up in her bed. "How long was I asleep?"

"Only two hours."

"Are you...all right, too? And the others, Lord Shoreham, Renée D'Auber, Prince Durmontov? Are they—"

"They are all fine," he said with a reassuring nod. "The only wizard affected by the spell was you."

"Oh, good," she said with a relieved sigh, and let her head rest once more against her pillow. "It worked."

"I'm glad you came out of it all right," Mairelon said then. She turned her head to look at him. "You worried me a bit, when you collapsed.." He fell silent for a moment, and when she didn't reply he said, "You didn't have to do that."

She stared at him, raised her head once more. "Of course I did!" she said fervently. Didn't he know yet, what she'd discovered when she went down to the slums to see Mannering? Did he have any clue as to what would have happened had she not convinced him to step out of the diagram and so she could take his place? "Did...didn't Hunch tell you anything?" she asked. "Did you see Mannering?"

Mairelon nodded. "Yes... He was in quite a state." He frowned. "Aunt Agatha and Hunch told me as much as they could what had happened, but I don't believe that Aunt Agatha quite understood everything that was going on, as she hadn't been informed of anything about the power-sharing spell. And Hunch had only come in at the end, he said... Mannering himself...was incomprehensible." He frowned.

"What d'you mean, incomprehensible?"

"Raving mad," Mairelon replied with a frown. "We could get nothing from him, and he kept babbling about being the ruler of all the wizards in the realm. It was quite...strange. As things are now, he's the perfect candidate for Bedlam."

So the spell _had_, in fact, collapsed Mannering's spell—and made him insane to boot. _But what about everyone else in the ring?_ And Mairelon knew nothing... Kim could see that he was very, very curious, and that he was eager to question her. Then she also realized that he didn't want to strain her. _Funny...I'm the one person who knows everything, but he ain't up to one of his usual tricks this time..._ Once again, she felt herself grow warm inside.

"The spell...the one in Henri d'Armand's book," she said. "It was all wrong."

"We knew that since we visited Duchesse Delagardie," he said pointedly.

"No...I mean, _really_ wrong," Kim said emphatically. "Mannering wasn't just usin' some magic-draining spell, it was the power-sharing one. He's had it up for months!"

Mairelon stared at her, disbelief written plainly upon his face. "How is that possible?" he asked slowly.

"He's not a wizard." Kim shook her head. Slowly, through her headache, she told him everything she knew from her meeting with the crazed would-be wizard Mannering. She told him how Mannering'd come by the late Henri d'Armand's _livre de memoire_; how he'd translated the faulty power-sharing spell and had one of his wizard cohorts cast it in English; how he'd monopolized their powers; and how the whole spell went so unstable that he'd had to recast it again and again to keep it going. She explained to an increasingly incredulous Mairelon how Mannering was always having to add another wizard into the loop until he'd gotten all the rookery witches and wizards into it—and then how he felt finally that he'd needed a highborn wizard. Then she told how Mannering had thought that the magic he'd stolen from Mairelon was actually that of Prince Durmontov's.

After a while, she finally wound down to the long, exhausting conclusion, explaining just _why_ she had taken his place in the spell diagram—so that the other wizards would not also be drawn into Mannering's dangerous loop. She explained how this would have destabilized the madman's spell entirely, resulting in a collapse that would have driven everyone mad and magicless. When she finished, Mairelon's face was grave.

"I see I have much to thank you for, Kim," he said finally, his voice quiet.

Kim shrugged, trying to hide the blush rising in her cheeks. Perhaps he wouldn't see, with the light being so dim...

"I..." she started, but stopped, not knowing quite what to say. Of course she could not say what was in her thoughts... _I didn't want to see you like Ma Yanger, with her mind gone...I couldn't bear the thought of you slack-jawed, drooling, empty-eyed...I didn't want to be Shoreham's apprentice instead of yours because it would never be the same...and I love you..._ Kim looked down at her bedcovers, unable to come up with anything that wouldn't sound so...so ridiculous. She suddenly had the urge to cry. _No, no, no, no, no..._

Mairelon was staring at her, an unreadable expression in his eyes. "Kim," he began, and then stopped. She looked up. "You've had a long night," he said. "I'll leave you to your rest, and tell the others what you've just told me. They won't bother you until the morning, I promise," he said with a small smile. He reached out to touch her hand, and then withdrew quickly, settling for a pat on her shoulder instead.

_What...what was it I just saw? It couldn't...was it...?_ Had he reached out to...to _caress_ her hand? Or was it only her foggy, lightheaded mind playing tricks on her, making her see what she so desperately wanted to...? _What was that look in his eyes, just now?_

As he made his way to the door, she whispered, "Mairelon..."

He stopped, and turned to face her. The flickering candle caused shadows to dance across his face, making his expression hard to see.

"I had to do it," Kim whispered, "but not only because everyone else was in danger..." She swallowed. "I did it for you..."

He inclined his head. "And I thank—"

"I did it for you!" she said again, wishing he could see her face clearly. Inwardly, she cursed the dim candlelight, and raised her hand. "_Fiat lux!_" she said impatiently, summoning the magical ball of light to her palm. She winced as the bright light flashed over the room, beams seemingly heading straight through her eyes into her pounding head. Well, she would brave it. A piddling headache was nothing to the apprehension she felt within...

Kim had to squint to see Mairelon's alarmed expression. "Kim, I don't think you should be casting spells just now—" he began.

"I saw Lord Franton today," she said unexpectedly, cutting him off once more. He froze in mid-sentence, frowning. "When you were preparing for the spell. And I told him I didn't want to marry him." She paused for a second, and added, "I told him that because I knew I wouldn't be happy—remember in the library, I told you, people are interested just because I'm different... I knew he wouldn't understand me..." She faltered at the look of incomprehension in his eyes. "The only person who's ever understood me at all's _you_," she whispered finally. "Don't you see? I ain't never goin' to get used to the gentry, Mairelon, because I don't _understand_ them...not a one of them, except you!"

"I don't understand what you're trying to get at," he said slowly, with a puzzled frown. She couldn't read anything else underneath that layer of perplexity. Kim stifled a curse, despairing of getting anything through his thick head.

_One more time,_ she thought to herself. _If he still doesn't understand..._ "I lied," she said, trying not to let desperation seep into her voice. "In the library, you asked me...if there was anyone...and I said no. I lied."

Mairelon's face went stiff. "Who, then?" he asked, his voice dull.

"You," she said simply.

He blinked once. Twice. Three times. Then he shook his head, as if he were trying to clear it. Then he looked at her, and said, "But...I thought you didn't want to marry a toff..."

This was not the reaction she'd dreamed about...and yet, it was much more heartening than an outright denial.

"I wasn't talkin' about _you_, bufflehead," Kim replied weakly.

His face had gone all unreadable again, drat it...but then he stepped away from the door and headed towards the bed. As she stared up at him, not knowing what to expect, he took her face in his hands and then kissed her.

Kissing Mairelon was much nicer than she'd dared to imagine, and when they came up for air about a minute later—or five minutes later, for all she knew—she was grinning like a fool. For that matter, so was he.

"Does that mean you'll marry me?"

Her eyes bright, she brought her hand up behind his head and pulled him down for another, briefer, kiss. "You've whiddled it," she whispered.

Mairelon's youthful face was suffused with pure joy. "Mother will be delighted. I'll have Hunch send a notice to the _Gazette_ tomorrow." He gave the candle flickering uselessly on the nightstand a contemplative look, then reached out and snuffed it. He sat down on the side of the bed and took her hand. They gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment, and then Mairelon leaned forward and took her into his arms.

One by one, Kim's fingers closed, her magical light dimming until it went out entirely.

~*~*~

_Author's End-note_: Comments? Complaints? Just leave a review and I just might get back to you. ^^


	2. Epilogue: Mairelon

_Author's Notes_: I originally wrote this very short piece as a stand-alone, but after thinking about it decided to tack it on _Fiat Lux_ as an epilogue. (A year after I wrote the original story...yeah.. heh.) I think it works fine that way. It's not all that wonderful though.. I wrote this around midnight-ish, on three cups of coffee and little sleep the night before, so forgive any errors I didn't uncover after the proof-reading! ^_^;;

**_Fiat Lux_ Epilogue: Mairelon**

"I take thee, Richard Merrill, as my husband..."

As she went on, Kim thought absentmindedly that he would always be Mairelon to her. It was the name she knew before the other, the singular moniker she had never bothered to replace in her mind. It was a name that had sounded quite magical when she'd first heard it, and when she'd first seen him in his hat and cape and flash togs. It had been only his stage name, and yet it was a name more real to her than any other.

Richard Merrill, despite being the name he was born with, didn't have half the magic in it as 'Mairelon.'

And Mairelon was hers exclusively. Richard Merrill, dutiful but exasperating, belonged to his mother, his aunt, Renée, Shoreham and whoever else knew him by association; Mairelon the Magician, who was just exasperating, belonged to Kim only. He was her mentor, her teacher, her savior, her protector... and her love. The man she would gladly die for, and for whom she nearly did. She was the only one besides Hunch who loved him for who he was, who trusted him without expecting things from him.

Others demanded things from Kim as well. Slowly, painstakingly, she learned to be proper for them, and learned to speak like a lady. She'd tried her hardest to adapt to an alien and complicated lifestyle so that she could be accepted. However, as kind as their intentions were, they'd wanted to shape her to what they wished to see, and not what she wished to be. Mrs. Lowe wanted propriety and wanted her to find a husband. Lady Wendell and Reneé d'Auber wanted her to make a splash. They all wanted a show. Society itself wanted a show, wanted to see if the guttersnipe would fail or fly among those who were born amongst the _haut ton_.

Mairelon had only wanted her to be what she wanted, and do what she wanted. Granted, the speaking lessons still went on. And though she did want to be a wizard, he did his best to guide her on that path because he wanted her to be one as well. However, he had also been concerned for her happiness, and her own wishes and desires. He wanted her to enjoy this new life he had gifted her. Perhaps this was a part of the reason why she loved him so much.

Whether she lived on the street or with the gentry, no one but Mairelon had ever cared about what _Kim_ wanted.

When Kim learned he had also wanted her to marry him, she had felt even more gratified to him. For she knew then that she would no longer be toyed with, as one did with a piece of clay. She would be allowed to mold herself, to enjoy her own sort of freedom as Mairelon's wife and love. Best of all, she would forever be at his side, to support him and to be supported. What remaining shadows of uncertain futures and lingering pasts were banished forever in a fiery flash of light. A sunburst.

_Fiat lux_, Kim thought to herself, her eyes twinkling with their own light as she looked into his. Mairelon looked back, eyes alive and smoldering and crinkled in a smile.

The words were finally said — those words memorized and rehearsed meticulously for weeks — and then instantly forgotten after their long-awaited utterance. The rings were exchanged. The minister said a few of his own words, but they were unheard in the rush of euphoria claiming both bride and groom. Then they were pronounced man and wife, and Kim was suddenly bent back, enveloped in arms and lips, and the church rang out with claps, laughter, whistles and shouts.

As Mairelon — _Mairelon_, not Richard — pulled back, he asked her softly, "Are you happy?"

Kim allowed her lips to widen in a wicked smile. "Ain't never been happier," she whispered back. His own lips quirked up wryly, but for once he made no comment on her word choice.

And as one, the twain turned to face Society together.

**~The End~**

* * *

_Author's end-note_: Told you it wasn't all that wonderful. *sigh* If this were to be categorized, it would be in the 'Plot? What plot?' section. It's just... more fluffy fluff. There really isn't much to say, except I just typed this up one night and decided to post it up. I'm not especially proud of it, since nothing really happens. I tried to gloss over what was actually happening; I'm not exactly brushed up on Regency-and-Victorian-era weddings and such. I'm not sure how much Kim was in character though.. it's a little hard to write something introspective in third person, but writing Kim in first person would have been even more difficult. x_X;;; Ah well. It's not even all that organized.... meh, well, I just hope this worked out all right and you people actually liked it. R&R, but only if you want to.

**Note**: I'm going to be working on another Mairelon story, a longer one with an actual plot. ^^; I don't know anyone besides me who loves the Mairelon universe as much as I do, so I'm going to have to shout out to everyone out there who's read this fic. If anyone would like to beta-read for me, please please e-mail me at voice_of_the_mist@yahoo.com. If anyone doesn't want to beta-read and yet wouldn't mind to know what strange ideas I have so I can do some good idea-bouncing, please e-mail me too. ^^; And if you just want me to update... you know what to do. *grin* Thank ye kindly!


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